Joffrey Ballet Closes Season With Amazing Performances in Global Visionaries

Another season is coming to a close for the Joffrey Ballet, and it is ending on high note with a World premiere, a Chicago premiere, and the return of a favorite.

Alexander Ekman’s world premiere of Joy is aptly named, reflecting both the feelings of the dancers and the reaction of the audience. This dance will take you by surprise from the beginning and keep you laughing through much of the performance. This ballet is truly a collaboration between the choreographer and the dancers. The creating began with Ekman asking the dancer a question about how to express joy through movement, then sitting back and observing the dancers doing just that. The result of this collaboration is a wonderfully original performance. I don’t want to spoil the enjoyment with details, but you’ll be thoroughly entertained by this one.

The Chicago premiere of Yuri Possokhov’s interpretation of The Miraculous Mandarin is also part of this program. Based on a story of the same name, it tells a tale of theft and murder with significant sensual overtones. When this ballet premiered in Cologne, Germany, in 1926, it was greeted with booing from the audience, outrage from both the city’s press and clergy, and an immediate ban by the mayor, who shut down the ballet after opening night, according to a German music journal that reported on the event. The score, composed by Béla Bartók, is performed by the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, which shares the stage with the dancers. This is an enthralling performance of guile and treachery.

Closing out the evening, the Joffrey Ballet revisits Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Mammatus, which enjoyed its world premiere with the Joffrey in 2015. The title references a specific cloud formation, and the set includes an LED light sculpture and fog that gives the impression of dancing on a cloud. Intense and powerful, Lopez Ochoa’s dance derives its energy from the asymmetrical energy of nature, and the contrast of black and white costumes represents the opposing elements in nature that create a storm.

The Joffrey Ballet is in top form as it closes the 2016-2017 season. Chicago is truly fortunate to have such a talented and dedicated dance company to call its own, which is also fortunate to be able to draw on some of today’s most talented choreographers.

Global Visionaries will be performed at the Auditorium Theatre through May 7. The theater is located at 50 East Congress Parkway in downtown Chicago. Single tickets range from $34-$159 and are available for purchase at The Joffrey Ballet’s official Box Office located in the lobby of Joffrey Tower, 10 E. Randolph Street, as well as the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University Box Office, by telephone 312-386-8905, or online at Joffrey.org.